Tag: Rehabiliation
Train Our Minds to See Good in Deaf Returnees
ASL-Version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2VSfDkUa5c
When a Deaf returnee (returning citizen/returned citizen) denied, he/she are separated from Deaf community. First, Deaf returnees seek rehabilitation is not illegal and the law says they shall be treated respectfully. According to the United States Constitution, Eighth Amendment.
Second, as it is, Deaf returnees are guilty and incarcerated without due process. So much for compassion and following the rule of law. Most of Deaf returnees are receiving harsh treatment than they had their entire lives. Dealing through harassment is a depressing task. So much cruelty, so much lack of empathy or understanding or even basic human caring.
Those Deaf returnees are humans. Do any of you that support this know any Deaf returnees personally? This is not how Deaf community treats the awareness among us. Remember, humanity has been at this crossroads before.
Culture of fear is what will fail. Deaf community should be accurate and fair. On the other hand, rejecting Deaf returnees from Deaf community seek to minimize the profound damage that culture of fear is doing to us. This practice is a witch-hunt. It has to be critically examined and discussed.
If you want to go that route, then it is just what it is, but states, counties, cities needs rehabilitation, not retribution. Do we understand that oppression used to justify the ownership of Deaf community?
Deaf returnees are being taken away from Deaf community are traumatized enough and it does infect harm. It is a fact. The pain, anguish, fear, raging through rumor-mill who lives in culture of fear. It is shameful, and it has no place in the heart of Deaf community. Who in their right mind takes a Deaf returnee on a difficult journey while knowingly being punished daily? Why do Deaf community continue on this path of cruelty? What price will Deaf returnees pay its final reckoning due? One Deaf person sent me this quote few weeks ago to remember by:
“Train your mind to see the good in every situation”- Buddha
It would be nice to train our minds to see the good in every situation what Deaf returnees can contribute back to Deaf community.
For Deaf returnees who seeks Deaf-centered counselors, please visit
-JT
Copyright © 2018 Jason Tozier
This text may be freely copied in its entirely only, including this copyright message.
Deaf Community: Rehabilitation Over Retribution
Life in Deaf community can be challenging, but it can be particularly harder for Deaf returnees whose bodies and minds are being pushed away by ignorance, bullying, and hatred. Deaf returnees serve the principal purposes of punishment: retribution, and rehabilitation. Whose old bones suffer from exile in Deaf community, who are forgetful, suffering human compassion, mocked, and ignored.
Ignorance does not make society safer. Ignorance hurts Deaf returnees, not dangerous people. Ignorance locks up Deaf returnees who have been convicted of a crime. Ignorance hurts vulnerable community that is known as Deaf returnee community, the world’s smallest human population.
I lived 30 minutes from Mt. St. Helens, the famous eruption in 1980. I am also a Deaf returnee. I found myself in trouble with the law; I had to face my past. As a teenager in the small town in state of Washington during my junior high days, I suffered and experienced a horrible tragedy.
Now I am 43 years old. The horrible tragedy was 32 years ago. Stories from a time when as a child myself did not learn or taught lessons what was right and wrong who were responsible for my early learning.
A Greek philosopher, Aristotle once wrote, “Memory is the scribe of the soul.”—In this case, writing is the mirror to my soul and the doorway into my existence where I was told that in Deaf community, I do not exist.
I had thought when I traded my life as a dedicated suburbanite for a life in Deaf community I had experienced about as radical a transition as I would ever face. As you read this it is good to realize that empowering Deaf returnees is the highest human compassion. By all reports life behind the fence as Deaf returnee is very different, and is often a much more degrading and dangerous experience.
Malthus who was born in 1766 and died in 1834, he studied at Cambridge and was selected to be a fellow at Jesus College in 1793. Five years later, he published Essay on the Principle of Population in which he argued that population would outrun food supply and would increase population. My point is that Deaf returnees are hungry for circle of support, empowerment, compassion, and higher education in the eyes of human population.
Do they deserve a second chance in Deaf community? Do they deserve being shunned? Rehabilitation should be number one priority over retribution in Deaf community.
-JT
Copyright © 2018 Jason Tozier
This text may be freely copied in its entirely only, including this copyright message.
Video Remote Interpreting: Sue NAD and Chris Wagner for Breach of Human Ignorance
While I was a patient last November 2016, VRI has broken down four times due to “technical difficulties”
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit wrote that Deaf patients could sue against hospitals for neglect of live interpreters instead of using video remote interpreting (VRI). I never liked using VRI myself as a patient. In fact, last November 2016, when I had a massive heart attack, I remember the first thing when one interpreter said to me, “Look, you need to use VRI–much easier for you to use it” and I said, “No, thanks! I prefer live interpreter” and I realized that they breached against my wish as a human being. Do you even realize that it was also a culture of fear by pushing fear in patients’ faces?
From the link I will provide you below:
A jury could find that [five Deaf patients] were denied effective communication; that nurses were aware of the denials; and that the nurses refused to correct the denials….The evidence indicates that the nurses, knowing the patients required an interpretive aid, relied on the VRI to facilitate communication with the patients; were put on notice that the VRI was not accommodating the patients; and chose to persist in using the VRI without correcting its deficiencies… In fact, it appears that the nurses even abandoned the VRI altogether at times without providing an alternative interpretive aid.”
I hated using VRIs. There are couple of times that VRI would not work while I was in the hospital recovering and noticed that they do not understand the seriousness of language barrier and hegemony. The worst thing is that I was forced to “live” by hours ordered by the interpreter—how dare the interpreter who is employed by the hospital staff makes rules for me?
The unthinkable is happening everywhere throughout the country that Deaf people are vulnerable that are being exploited, physically abused, and emotionally abused by the hospitals on Mother Earth that was supposed to love thy neighbor. It is impossible to know just how many Deaf patients who struggled for human rights are out there.
When I made complaints against the hospital and asked National Association of the Deaf (NAD) for help, know what NAD said to me? “Sorry. The case is closed!” and bid me good day. That was fucking bullshit. Even more distributing that in many cases, NAD are doing very poorly job not to give Deaf people enough protection.
Is it the reason the systematic failure that makes it very difficult for Deaf people to seek for rightful justice? Also, we must remember former NAD president, Christopher Wagner who supported the idea of VRIs, which caused huge conflict of interest while he was working for zVRS to bring into political favouritism.
Through those stories are a way for all of us to escape our minds and experience their pain, deep down the problems are very real. And in many ways, our characters are what the reflection of the light. We need to help them and set a good example. We need to understand them that would bring quintessential to the human condition.
Deaf patients who were pressured to use VRI or face consequences promoting human rights abuse—I think it would be good idea for them to hold Christopher Wagner and NAD accountable. Stop abuse of power, corruption, undermines rule of law, money, bullying, ignorance and bullying!
Time for those Deaf patients to sue against NAD and Wagner. Do not be a bystander. VRIs has done major damage more than they really think.
-JT
Copyright © 2017 Jason Tozier
This text may be freely copied in its entirely only, including this copyright message.
References:
http://brombergtranslations.com/2017/06/05/2236/
34% Is No Joke!
Solitary Deaf Prison by Nancy Rourke
Depression is the inability to construct a future-Rollo May
Psssst. Hey, you. 34% is a lot! For example, “Wilken noted that inmates in segregated housing accounted for 34 percent of all suicides in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Prisoners in solitary are also 33 percent more likely than those in the general prison population to commit suicide, according to the ruling.” and please see the link below at the end of the post.
There is something important that you need to know. Someone has to say it. The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) does not care about it. Everyone at the NAD home office tries very hard not to know it. This 34% claim may seem theatrical, but the odds are stacked in my favor.
Hold on a second, they will probably be thinking by now. Do not single us out. Ignoring Deaf issues is a NATIONAL PROBLEM; Deaf people are angry like zeppelins all over America. The NAD headquarters is located in Silver Spring, Maryland, and they think they are safe and healthy. Deaf people have the birthright of Deafhood. Surely Deaf people are no worse than anyone else. The first president of NAD, Robert MacGregor would agree to it!
I am questioning leadership of the NAD because the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had an important workshop called “Inmate Calling Services Rates” last Wednesday, July 10th. There was not a single representative from NAD showing up. The NAD has the staff of between 11-13 people ad none of them came to the FCC workshop.
The FCC headquarters is located in Washington, D.C. Between Silver Spring and D.C. is no more than 30 minutes of driving. The FCC workshop was a public notice. How could they have missed it? True, Deaf issues are all over America, ans the NAD is supposed to be leading “the charge of the brigade” in the United States.
For example, Deaf people suffer the most of any of minority groups when it comes to mental health concerns. From the last time I remembered, 35% of Deaf people do not have an access to counseling. It has become a major concern because counseling is rehabilitating. Presently there are about 500 Deaf people so far who are incarcerated in jails or prisons. Access to such phone services as Video Phone (VP) would save a lot of problems for Deaf people today.
There are many stories that these Deaf inmates are suffering a lot from depression, isolation, mental anguish, anxiety, loss of sleep, physical and mental illness due to the experience. Mental health issues do kill their livelihood any more than people really understand. That is where the money drains. Here is the point: Health-care professionals know that Deaf inmates need to employ American Sign Language (ASL) are uniquely massive with health problems, the question is that why does not the NAD squirm at answering the question: “Why did they not show up at the FCC workshop with care?”
Let’s look at these alarming facts: The Ontario Association of the Deaf (OAD) in Canada has only three people on staff but they sure know how to be in the charge. They would make stops all over Ontario to make sure Deaf people are in good hands. Three people on staff, compared to 11-13 people on the NAD staff. What the heck?! NAD needs to turn off their television and go outside to meet real Deaf people. In the real media world, hearing people would say that Deaf people have a social deviance where hearing people keep on demonizing the Deaf with different points of view. For the sake of Deaf people’s mental health, the NAD needs to leave the home office, to go down the road, to attend a workshop, and to learn something that might make a difference in Deaf people’s lives. It is not healthy to sit inside the home office too much.
The NAD presents a new genre in zombie lore. The NAD’s mission is to imply that another could be gore fest of inexplicably reanimated, undead humans turned monsters feasting off the flesh of the living known as Deaf people. However, the NAD is not really narrative about zombies. Instead, the NAD utilizes the motif of the monster–in this case–the zombie as the metaphor to contrast the vulnerable state of humanity and its pursuit of survival in the collapse of all societal structures. However, the metaphor delves so deeply in the consciousness of physical and psychological reality for the characters in the narrative that it becomes literal. The zombie is no longer a monster, but a conflicted human turned by a societal-borne disease. Where is the NAD’s symbol in their placement between two worlds–the previous world governed by law order of hearing people, and the current world where laws appear meaningless. The NAD represents a moral code that separates the zombie experience from the human experience. The NAD also represents a failure of that moral code to shield humanity from extinction. The failure of government structures and the medical community to quell the zombie pandemic is evidenced everywhere that abandoned Deaf people from real life interaction.
Deaf inmates who are suffering depression while being incarcerated is hard to grasp. The media work very hard at assuring the public that Deaf inmate are dismissed, swept under the rug. Fortunately we the Deaf see these type of stories often enough to read between the lines and know that it is not the case at all. A big charade that goes on behind the thin blue line cannot be ignored! Education is already free. However, Deaf people are not being provided to use VP to make calls to their families, friends, or whoever they call make their lives more harder. The NAD needs to admit that they know that if they do not participate in this important FCC workshop, their attitudes do reflect those Deaf inmates that they may not return to society minimal expectations, then that is what prison becomes useful. While Deaf people are being shut out without providing an ASL interpreter for whatever the reason might be, their social literacy becomes worse. The NAD needs to realize that Deaf inmates are being forced out of education at the greatest cost.
My question is that does the NAD really understand the importance of faith in today’s version of American justice for Deaf inmates and the FUTURE of Deaf America such as freedom of speech and various constitutional rights? 34% of the Deaf inmates are suffering because of the NAD’s lackaday; the NAD does not care about Deaf inmates.
-JT
Copyright © Jason Tozier
This text may be freely copied in its entirely only, including this copyright message.
Reference:
Janquart, Philip A. Judge Orders Relief for Deaf California Prisoners. 7 June 2013.
...And the Truth Shall Set You Free. 
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